"Our guys were beaten down when I got here, I mean, just beaten down - you could tell by the practices, you could tell by every move they made,'' Robinson said. "Now, what you have is a locker room full of guys who think they can win. We could play an NBA team and they'd think, 'well, if we play perfectly, we might have a shot.' That's what you want.''

That confidence seems to be missing from the Ducks, but Tajuan Porter isn't about to admit it.

"I don't believe our confidence is down as a team,'' he said.

As for finding themselves in this predicament - in last place in the Pacific-10 Conference, with an 0-8 league record - Porter said, "stuff happens.''

Kent, who no doubt will begin feeling serious heat if his team loses in Corvallis on Saturday to complete a winless first half of the Pac-10 schedule, said his team might be beaten down a little bit, but that's to be expected.

"Losing wears on anyone,'' Kent said. "They know they need a win, we know we need a win, but we're really focused on just getting them better game to game.

"What Craig has done has just instill a different type of work ethic, mentality, a belief. It can go the other way really, really fast if you start to have that belief.''

For the Ducks, it can't come fast enough.

By the numbers ...

Tajuan Porter's next three-point bucket will move him past James Davis (242) and into second place by himself on Oregon's career list behind Orlando Williams (282). Porter ranks fifth nationally in free-throw percentage (90.8 percent); the rest of the team is shooting 63.7 percent from the line. ... After his 12-point, 6-rebound game at Arizona State, freshman Drew Wiley has played a total of 24 minutes in the past four games, with a total of four points and one rebound. ... Freshman Michael Dunigan has grabbed more than five rebounds in a Pac-10 game twice - against USC and Washington, the only games in which he has played more than 21 minutes. ... Oregon ranks 323rd out of 330 teams in field goal percentage defense (48.0 percent) after California lit the Ducks up for 67 percent shooting a week ago. The Ducks also rank 316th in scoring defense (76.9 points per game) and three-point field goal defense (37.9 percent).